Tag: nebraska

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The Meridian Highway Bridge

As the number of automobile owners increased during the early 1900s, so did demand for better roads. One of the major north-south routes was the Meridian Highway which crossed the Great Plains from Winnipeg, Canada, to Mexico City, Mexico. Now it is known as US 81, but back then it was nicknamed the “Main Street of North America.” The Meridian Highway took its name from the Sixth Principal Meridian which it roughly paralleled, and at one time was reported to be the longest international highway in the world.  The last section of the highway to be completed was the Meridian Highway Bridge at Yankton, South Dakota, which spans the great Missouri River between that state and Nebraska. This historic bridge is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

This map was part of an ad in an Oklahoma newspaper advocating for the paving of roads in Kingfisher County.

Prior to the construction of the Meridian Highway Bridge, those needing to cross the river at Yankton had to use a ferry service or a seasonal pontoon bridge. For this reason, talk of a bridge project was nothing new when a group of Yankton businessmen renewed the discussion in 1919. They began raising local capital and holding meetings, and as often happens, some turned heated. At one meeting in particular, “boxing gloves were resorted to in a successful effort to relieve ill feeling and restore the sanity and good nature of the bridge sponsors.”

The group founded The Meridian Highway Bridge Company and commenced a campaign to sell stock. An engineer was hired, and the first dirt was thrown in February of 1921. The company adopted a policy of paying bills in full every Saturday and continued this practice until the end. In 1923, $300,000 in bonds were issued to finish the project which had a total cost of $1,250,000. It was truly a local project since eighty-five percent of the capital was raised from a population of 20,000 people living within twenty miles of the bridge.

The bridge was said to be a lucky one as there were no serious accidents or injuries in the building of it. This fortunate bridge was also a double-decker with thirty-four feet nine inches between the lower and upper decks. It was designed for vehicular traffic on the upper level and for trains on the lower level, although it never actually saw any use by trains. The bridge proper was 1,668 feet long, and the total length including approaches was 5,863 feet. It was constructed with eight piers of reinforced concrete with steel on the upper river side. The piers measured sixteen by fifty-eight feet at the base, and the height of the piers mid-steam was sixty-eight feet six inches, with thirty-five feet below the bed of the river. A total of 30,000 pounds of steel was used.

 It had a lift mechanism that allowed river traffic to pass below. The distance between the lifting span piers was 250 feet and designed so that the lifting span could be placed between any two piers in case the river changed course. The span weighed 800 tons and was able to be lifted twenty-seven feet using counterweights and a 20-hp gasoline motor.

The project put one man out of business, ferry operator Captain Joseph Geisler, but he apparently wasn’t too broken up about it as he was also a stockholder in the bridge company. He had been operating a steamboat on the Missouri since 1880 and was likely quite tired of it.

The Meridian was a toll bridge, and this was the schedule of tolls when the bridge opened in 1924:

The completion of the bridge was celebrated with a week of great pageantry. There were parades, floats, fireworks, football games, and rodeos, and a tent city with 1,000 shelters had to be constructed to accommodate all of the travelers coming from other states and countries. The town of Wausa, Nebraska, population 400, recruited residents from the entire county so it could send a delegation numbering 800. Both Canada and Mexico sent delegations to christen the bridge with bottles of water brought from their respective countries to mingle with the water of the Missouri. The Sioux sent a representative from the Rosebud Reservation to meet and clasp hands with a Yankton representative in the middle of the bridge. Dirt from every county in South Dakota and Nebraska was mixed in jars and also tossed into the river. There was even a wedding held in the center of the bridge. A crowd of 20,000 people was on-hand to witness the actual bridge dedication on October 17, 2024.

The city of Yankton took over ownership in 1946. After recouping the $700,000 purchase price through tolls, toll collection ended in 1953. The first car to drive across the toll-free bridge was reported to be a 1913 Model T “showpiece” driven by a city commissioner; unfortunately, no paper saw fit to publish a picture of the classic Ford. The two decks were converted to one-way vehicular traffic, one going north and one going south. The lift mechanism was later removed.

Today, a new bridge has been constructed for vehicular traffic crossing the Missouri at Yankton. The one-hundred-year-old Meridian Highway Bridge is now used for recreational purposes, and that upper deck still affords one beautiful view of the Missouri River.

View of the new bridge from the top level of the Meridian Highway Bridge
Lower level of the bridge facing south
Plaque that stands near the bridge today.
Bicyclists using the historic bridge.
Upper level of the Meridian Highway Bridge.

Sources:

“Ceremonies Mark End of 29-Year Fees.” The Daily Argus Leader [Sioux Falls], 1 Dec 1953, p.1

“Great Crowd Sees Bridge Dedicated.” Norfolk Daily News, 17 Oct. 1924, p. 2.

“If We Wait – What?” The Hennessey Clipper, 30 Oct 1924, p. 4.

“New Meridian Highway Bridge.” Free Press Evening Bulletin [Winnipeg], 18 Oct 1924, p. 29.

“Wedding on New Yankton Bridge.” Polk County Democrat, 23 Oct. 1924, p. 6.

“Week of Celebration to Mark Opening Meridian Highway Bridge at Yankton.” The Lincoln Star, 3 Oct 1924, p. 6.

“Week’s Celebration to Mark Opening Yankton Bridge.” The Daily Argus Leader [Sioux Falls], 11 Oct 1924, p. 5.

“Yankton Toll House Vacant; Bridge Clear.” The North Platte Telegraph Bulletin, 2 Dec 1953, p. 2.

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The Nebraska Version of the Fuller

The best-known Fuller automobile is likely the one made in Michigan, but there was also a Fuller made in Nebraska, and it was a beauty with gleaming brass accents. The Nebraska Fuller was manufactured in the tiny town of Angus, Nebraska, by a homegrown mechanical genius, and it likely would have continued to thrive were it not for shareholder disagreements.

The Fuller as depicted in the Angus Automobile Company brochure.

The man with the mechanical aptitude was Charles Fuller, and he had gathered experience in a blacksmithing and buggy shop where he completed an early version of a car, reportedly the first one in the state. This experience combined with stints working for the St. Louis and Lambert Car Companies to ignite a desire to start his own car company. In 1906, the business was incorporated with capitalization of $50,000 in his hometown of Angus, which had a population of around 500 at that time. A new $20,000 factory was constructed, and manufacturing commenced in February of 1907 with a capability of building 13 cars at one time. Two other Fuller Brothers (Clarence and Lon) and their father, a preacher and a blacksmith who was also named Charles, were also involved in the business.

Photos of the Angus Automobile Company taken around 1908.

The company hired around 40 employees to build the cars that, unlike the Model T, were available in a variety of colors. In an interview conducted in 1965, a former employee said that the paint shop would put on 16-18 coats of quality paint, and that he remembered delivering cars in red, gray, white, green, blue, and black. The cars were powered by the Indiana-made Rutenber engines that were used in many early automobiles including the Auburn.

The Fuller Touring Car was powered by a 4-cylinder 35-40hp Rutenber motor. Other models available included a Gentleman’s Roadster, a Runabout, and a heavier Touring Car with a 60hp 6-cylinder engine. The company pioneered many ideas, including the use of a steel shaft instead of a chain drive to transmit power from the engine to the rear wheels. This 1908 advertisement is a most detailed explanation of the mechanics of the automobile:

One 1907 paper reported that Charles Fuller had taken one of his new automobiles to the nearby town of Edgar one day when he received a phone message that he was needed back in Angus before the train left the station there. The train was due to leave in 15 minutes, and Fuller made it in 12. Today, Google says the trip will still take 10 minutes.

A common marketing ploy in the early 1900s was to put a car on a giant teeter totter. The Fuller took its turn on such a contraption at a 1909 Odd Fellows picnic.

The car was manufactured until 1910, its demise the result of disagreements over the future of the company. The success of the venture had resulted in a lot of interest from outside parties; newspapers reported that at least four other towns were trying to induce the company to move operations there. Then a group of Omaha businessmen offered to purchase the company after seeing an exhibition at the Nuckolls County Fairgrounds in which the Fuller completed two half-mile laps in 60 seconds. Charles Fuller wanted to sell, but the other shareholders refused. Charles left the business, and there was no business without Charles Fuller. A 1913 newspaper story appeared when the Angus Automobile Company was sold to a couple of men from Brewster. It confirmed that company control had been secured by a group of Nelson businessmen at some point and moved to Nelson, but that it had been operating as a general repair and garage business as cars had not been manufactured for several years.

Sources differ on the actual number of Fullers built, but generally agree there were hundreds completed. Regardless of the number built, the Fuller might have completely disappeared from this earth were it not for the fact that a niece of the Fullers married a California car guy with Nebraska roots by the name of Ray Ringer.  A 1955 newspaper story described Ringer as someone who collected parts of old car models and assembled them as a hobby, and the story was written because the Ringers were traveling to Lexington, Nebraska, to see the last known surviving Fuller, a 1908 model. There is no report of what they actually found in Lexington, but Ringer was able to scrounge enough parts to put together this Fuller which is now on display at the Nuckolls County Historical Society & Museum in Superior, Nebraska.

This gorgeous Touring Car has a red leather interior, cream colored paint, and beautiful brass accents. It is powered by the 4-cylinder/40-hp Rutenber motor. A plate mounted on the rear of the car identifies it as a Fuller, manufactured by the Angus Automobile Company. There is an emblem on the radiator, but it isn’t likely original.

As for the Fuller brothers, Clarence moved to Hastings and opened a car dealership with his son, Homer. He died in 1943 and Homer continued in the business, building these new quarters for a Buick dealership in 1950.

Charles moved to California and continued to invent. He made the papers in the 1930s for inventing a machine to extract gold by the placer method using air instead of water. It was reported that the giant machines were not for sale but were leased out for a flat rate plus a percentage of the profits. Manufactured in Los Angeles, the machines were 47 feet long, 18 feet wide and weighed 33 tons. According to a 1971 article written by his daughter in The Horseless Carriage Gazette, Charles Fuller died at his drafting table in 1940.

Homer Fuller once recalled the day his father drove one of the new Fullers by a church just as the service was over. The unusual site of an automobile sent horses and buggies in every direction, and Homer said, “They were going to hang my father, sue him, and everything else.” The original site of the factory in Angus is now a cornfield. There is little left of the now-unincorporated town, just a few streets, a handful of houses, and the memories of the fine automobiles that were once built there.

Note : The following names were mentioned in old newspaper stories in connection with the Angus Automobile Company.

Nelson Businessmen: C. R. Imler, M.S. Storer, D.L. Davies, L.W. Knapp, William A. Voigt, S.A. Lapp, V.A. Thomas, W.W. Hawley, Proctor Peebler

Incorporators: Charles E Fuller, Charles M Fuller, D.C. Mills, L. Moss, H.G. Eggers, J.L. Carlon, E.C. Moore, J.W. Ewing

Employees: Gilbert Osborne, Mr. Davis, G.W. Taylor, C.T. Moss

Sources:

Advertisement. District IOOF Picnic. The Edgar Sun, 20 Aug 1909, p. 5.

Advertisement. Fuller Motor Car. The Deshler Rustler, 14 Feb 1908, p. 12.

Advertisement. “The Angus Automobile Company.” The Lincoln Journal Star, 19 Feb 1908, p. 5.

Advertisement. Western Motor Sales. The Hastings Daily Tribune, 12 May 1950, p. 7.

Advertisement. W. J. Burt Motor Car Company. The Los Angeles Times, 3 Sept 1911, p. VII-4.

“Angus Auto Factory Sold.” The Edgar Post, 11 Mar 1913, p. 1.

“Automobile News.” Omaha Daily Bee, 28 Jul 1907, p. 3.

“Automobile Show Attracts.” The Nebraska State Journal, 27 Feb 1908, p. 3.

Bixby, Max. “When Angus Was a Thriving Town and Automobiles Were Manufactured There.” The Superior Express, 1 Apr 1965, p. 2-1.

“Chance For New Factory.” The Beatrice Daily Express, 8 Apr 1908, p. 1.

“Charles M. Fuller Inventor of Giant Placer Mining Machine.” The Hastings Daily Tribune, 26 Jul 1932, p. 8.

“District I. O. O. F. Picnic.” The Edgar Post, 20 Aug 1909, p. 1.

“From Our Exchanges.” Nuckolls County Herald, 11 Jul 1907, p. 10.

“Fuller Cars Manufactured at Angus Fifty Years Ago.” The Oak Leaf, 23 Sept 1967, p. 2.

“Fuller Car Manufactured in Angus Listed in Auto History.” The Hastings Daily Tribune, 21 Nov 1951, p. 5.

“Growth of the Automobile in Popularity and General Utility in Omaha.” Omaha Daily Bee, 22 Mar 1908, p. 3.

“Homer Fuller Dies Sunday.” The Hastings Daily Tribune,10 Jul 1961, p. 9.

“Local Lore.” Nuckolls County Herald, 11 Aug 1911, p. 5.

“Rather Independent.” The Superior Journal, 25 Apr 1907, p. 4.

“Tells of Recent Trip.” The Edgar Sun, 20 Oct 1955, p. 4.

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Story of Burkett’s Ride: Automobile Goes on the Warpath and Creates a Sensation in Nebraska Town

This dramatic headline appeared over an article in the Omaha Daily News about a trip made by H. E. Fredrickson into Blair, Nebraska, in his new steam-powered automobile in October of 1900. The story, slightly edited, goes something like this:

Undertaker H. K. Burkett had impressed Fredrickson and his automobile into service to get to Blair on an urgent call, inasmuch as he could not catch a train until much later in the day.

Fredrickson deposited Burkett at the place where he wanted to go and then went downtown to snatch a bite to eat. He stopped his vehicle before the eating place and forgot to hitch it. The sight of the horseless wagon naturally attracted a whole lot of attention, and before long five-sixths of the population was gathered about it.

“By gum, this yere’s a funny wagon,” remarked a prominent citizen as he stored a hunk of tobacco in his face. “Where do you suppose he hitches his mules?”

This interesting topic was being discussed with gusto when the automobile gave vent to a snort of steam. Most of the crowd drew back, but the bolder spirits held their ground. “Gee whiz, Bill, the buggy’s on fire,” yelled one of them. “Go call the fire company.”

He went closer to the vehicle to investigate and accidentally struck the propelling lever. The machine started and the investigator grabbed hold of it to stop it, but it pulled him along.

“Hully gee, help,” yelled he when he had been pulled some thirty feet down the road. During the whole performance up to this time, the crowd had stood rooted to the spot with their eyes sticking out of their heads. The yell awakened a dozen sturdy men, however, and they started off in pursuit of the mobile and its victim.

Half of them grabbed hold of the wheels and tried to pull it to a stop. The other half went to the front and pushed against it. The latter were run over for their pains, inasmuch as the automobile persisted in going ahead.

It was a moment of great excitement, and Fredrickson, attracted by the hubbub, rushed out from the restaurant. He saw his mobile jauntily sailing down the road with the mob of men clinging to it and sized up the situation in a moment. He touched only the high spots in pursuit and meanwhile yelled, “Pull back the lever. Pull back the lever!”

Somebody heard him and yanked back the lever. He, however, pulled it back too far. The mobile halted for just an instant and then backed suddenly, throwing a half a dozen men to the ground and running over them. A score grabbed hold of the machine again, while the rest of the crowd stood in the middle of the road trying to stop it with upraised arms and jumping up and down. The mobile paid no attention to them, and Fredrickson was about ready to bid it adieu when it suddenly ran up against a store and came to a halt. No damage had been done to the machine, but half a dozen Blair citizens believed that they had broken arms or legs until a physician told them they were all right.

A shudder ran through Fredrickson when he was relating his experience upon his arrival in this city. “For a few minutes, I was mighty glad that I had an undertaker with me,” he declared.

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Carhenge

Someone asked me the other day why I’ve never mentioned Carhenge on this website.  For the record, I love Carhenge, that ultimate example of repurposing located in Nebraska’s Sandhills, but I try to avoid re-hashed information and, let’s face it, Carhenge has been written about extensively.

In case there is someone not familiar with this particular tourist attraction, Carhenge is a built-to-scale replication of England’s Stonehenge using cars in place of stones, and it is absolute genius.  The artist behind the creation is a man named Jim Reinders, and he actually spent time in England studying Stonehenge.  According to the Carhenge website, Reinders and some family members created the sculpture in 1987 as a memorial to Reinders’s father.  Reinders said it was built with “blood, sweat and beers,” as many of the best things are.

The “heel stone” is represented by a ’62 Cadillac, but there is a wide variety of automobiles used throughout the installation, everything from a Gremlin, to a Willys Jeep Truck to a 1960 Plymouth with enormous tailfins:

 

The site is popular with tourists, as it should be, and has high ratings on Trip Advisor.  It also received a Traveler’s Choice award for 2020 from that online travel company.  Here is the funny part though, many people hated it when it was first built and were hellbent on destroying it.

Even though the sculpture was located two miles outside of town on private property, the members of the local Planning Commission got their panties in a twist because the land was (gasp) zoned for agricultural use and, obviously, those arbiters of all that is good and tasteful just didn’t appreciate the pile of old automobiles marring the landscape.   In August of 1987, Reinders even received a letter from a Nebraska Assistant Attorney General informing him that his creation was considered a junkyard under state statutes, that it was not in an area zoned for junkyards, and that he had until the following Saturday to tear it down. Nebraska is a large state, and I do not know why some squishy bureaucrat located 367 miles away in the state capital inserted himself into the situation.

Luckily, this unique and quirky attraction found a degree of local support.  A group call “Friends of Carhenge” was founded, concessions were made to soothe the fragile egos of the government officials, and Carhenge is now an award winner and a triumph for the little guy.  I read an article from the following year, 1988, in which Reinders found one more hilarious way to tweak the bureaucrats.  He told the reporter that he was planning a trip to China and was considering constructing a “Great Wall” out of cars in Nebraska for his next project.  Fantastic.

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FOP Radiator Badge

It has been awhile since I’ve posted anything because we’ve been distracted by the week-long craziness known as Nebraska’s Junk Jaunt. The Junk Jaunt is a trail of approximately 500 miles, filled with hundreds of garage sales and antiques vendors, that winds along the Loup River and through the scenic Sandhills. People come from all over to treasure hunt, alone or in packs, and the whole thing has a fun, festive atmosphere.

The selection did not disappoint this year. My daughter is a World War II buff, and she was understandably thrilled to find an Air Force foot locker from that era with a leather flight suit still in it. My favorite automobile-related find was probably this item:

This is a radiator badge and, as you can see, it reads, “Associate Member Fraternal Order of Police”. It is no surprise that it has some damage. It would have been wired to the front end of an automobile where it would have faced considerable wear and tear, and it is old. No older than 1915, however, because that is when the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) formed after founders witnessed how firefighters bettered their working conditions by negotiating as a group.

I like the symbolism of the FOP’s star emblem. It is hard to make out on my badge, but the symbols on the two legs of the star are an open eye on the left and clasped hands on the right. According to the FOP website, “The open eye is the eye of vigilance ever looking for danger and protecting all those under its care while they sleep or while awake. The clasped hands denote friendship. The hand of friendship is always extended to those in need of our comfort.” The blue field represents the thin blue line protecting those served by law enforcement, and the motto in the center of the star reads “Jus, Fidus, Libertatum”. This Latin phrase translates to “Law is a Safeguard of Freedom”.

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Amphicar (The Car Nebraskans Need Right Now)

Although this Amphicar was not American-made, it was marketed primarily to Americans. It was an amphibious automobile invented by German Hans Trippel and was produced from 1961 to 1968.


Amphicar at Pioneer Village in Minden, Nebraska

Twin propellers (located under the rear of the car) were easily engaged with a shift knob.

The front tires acted as rudders and special seals around the doors and engine compartment kept the water out. It had stamped steel body panels, a Porsche transmission and suspension made by Mercedes-Benz. Power was supplied by a rear-mounted 43-hp 4-cylinder Triumph engine. Newspaper accounts vary, but top land speed was around 65-70 mph with water speed somewhere around 10-12 mph.

“Chemist Goes By Water in His car.” The Sidney Herald Morning Sun, 25 April 1965, p. 17.

The Amphicar was apparently seaworthy, crossing the English Channel from Calais to Dover in 5.5 hours in 1962. Back in the states, a salesman demonstrating one at a lake in Texas said, “Most of the time people think I’m either a drunk who has run his car off into the lake, or some crazy nut.”

McGuire, Michael. “Cars Ahoy, Hail Drivers During Plunge in Lake.” Chicago Tribune, 1 August 1965, p. 1.

Another story about the Amphicar from 1962 asked, “Who needs bridges anymore?” Good point! With many bridges destroyed by historic flooding, thousands of Nebraskans would find an Amphicar extremely useful about now.

1963 Amphicar Ad

Sources:

“Amphicar Demonstrator Discovers People are Curious.” The Irving Daily News Texan, 7 October 1962, p. 9.

“Amphicar – Hans Trippel Knew How to Make Hope Float.”  Fort Myers News-Press, 6 October 2004.

“Chemist Goes by Water in His car.” The Sidney Herald Morning Sun, 25 April 1965, p. 17.

Hill, Michael.  “What Has Four Wheels and Floats?” Chicago Tribune, 8 January 1995, p. 6.

“Hope Wasn’t Enough to Make This Idea Float.” Chicago Tribune, 24 October 2007, p. 2.

Ianfield, Peggy.  “Amphicars Startle Cape Coral Area.”  Fort Myers News-Press, 29 July 1962, p. 5-C.

McGuire, Michael. “Cars Ahoy, Hail Drivers During Plunge in Lake.” Chicago Tribune, 1 August 1965, p. 1.

 “Sports Car – Boat Too.” The Nashville Tennessean, 7 October 1962, p. 6-C.

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Nebraska Junk Jaunt 2018

If you are able to schedule a “junk vacation” (junk-ation?) this month, head to Nebraska for the 15th annual Junk Jaunt.  The Junk Jaunt is 500 miles of garage sales and purveyors of all kinds of antiques and junk, over 700 vendors in all.

There are several must-shop hot-spots along the way, and one of the best is the village of Cairo, which is pronounced KAIR-oh, like the syrup.     Most of Cairo is covered with vendors, including main street, the ball field, the Community Center and a large field next to the Lutheran Church.  To find all things gas, oil and automotive, just look for this DT Vintage sign in the “Big Ass” Shed north of the ball field.